The 10 most surprising supercars

When ordinary car makers suddenly decide to produce an extraordinary car it can result in a real icon; a car which takes a fresh tilt at the supercar class and offers up an everyman alternative to the established top dogs of the day. The Honda NSX was just one such car, and this week we've finally been able to drive the successor to that 1990 original. To celebrate, here are our 10 favourite surprise supercars - amazing cars built by everyday manufacturers

10. MG XPower SV

If you wanted to go very sideways while making an awful lot of noise and watching your car fall to bits around you, then the MG XPower SV was just the thing. Developed from the stillborn (and rather pretty) De Tomaso Bigua, the XPower SV was a rampant (and not very pretty) attempt to build a brutish supercar to sit atop the MG range. It failed rather spectacularly, not only because nobody really wanted an expensive supercar with Fiat Punto headlamps, but because it was actually rather tame out on the road, lacking the chutzpah to match those wild looks.

9. Lancia Stratos

It stretches the definition of a supercar somewhat, but if you don't consider a rally homologation special with the engine from a Ferrari to be a little bit special, then your expectations are probably a little bit too high. Anyway, the Stratos was a legend - utterly, hopelessly cruddy in terms of its build quality, but exceptional to drive. And all from the company that also brought you the Dedra.

8. Nissan R390

Bit of a cheat, this one, as only one road-going Nissan R390 was ever built, but only because Nissan didn't have the guts to put it into limited production. We reckon people would have bought it - after all, it was a pretty thing, and could do 220mph; almost as fast as the contemporary McLaren F1.

7. Chevrolet Corvette

Today, the name Corvette is synonymous with Chevrolet, but back in post-war America, Chevy was strictly a maker of big, dowdy saloon cars. Then, along came the fibreglass Corvette, a two-seat sports car that looked like nothing else out there, and with its 195bhp V8, could rocket from 0-60 in just 11.5 seconds. To put that in perspective a Morris Minor of the era could barely hit the benchmark at all, and took 28 seconds to hit 50mph.

6. Jaguar XJ220

Of course, Jaguar was no stranger to fast cars - but a supercar was a whole different matter. The XJ220 proved to be one of Jaguar's biggest white elephants and one of its most beloved models in one fell swoop. Its effortlessly graceful shape was a joy to behold and, for a short time, it was the fastest car in the world. But the British Leyland parts bin approach to building it meant it left the factory with half the engine it was supposed to have, while build quality was distinctly unbecoming of such an expensive car. Buyers pulled out left right and centre, and Jaguar had to sell the last few at an enormously reduced rate.

When Audi revealed the Le Mans Quattro at the 2003 Frankfurt motor show, the world was impressed - but not half as much as when Audi later said it was going to put the car into production. The R8 was the result, and it proved that dowdy old Audi (sorry) really could produce a competitive supercar. The R8 eschewed the safe-but-uninvolving handling character of other fast Audis, going instead for a rear-drive bias to its four-wheel drive system, and teamed with either the V8 or the V10 engine, it made for quite the usable supercar.

4. Lexus LFA

Lexus had long been known for its incredibly reliable, but slightly soulless luxury saloons. Then along came the LFA, and proved the company had soul. It looked, sounded and drove like no other supercar, and while Lexus lost money on every one it built it gave the company an image boost and a design language it continues to draw on today.

3. BMW M1

Before the M1, there was no such thing as a BMW M-car. The Motorsport division had been put together in 1972, with the sole aim of producing BMW's motorsport offerings, and the M1 was the first of many iconic road-going cars, built especially to give BMW a car it could compete with in Group 4 motorsport. Its frenetic engine was its heart and soul, while its Giugiaro styling turned heads everywhere it went. And it spawned the M5 and M635CSi - ordinary cars which featured the M1's engine, and thus established a trend for bonkers BMW performance saloons.

2. Honda NSX

It'd be wrong to call this the car that started it all, but the NSX really is the archetypal surprise supercar. You could find it in showrooms next to the rather dull Accord and Civic, a mid-engined, slant-nosed supercar with the looks of a Ferrari and handling finessed by Ayrton Senna. No wonder it's become a legend ever since.

1. Ford GT40

The story of Ford's attempt to beat Ferrari at Le Mans is now legend, but to gloss over it is to ignore the huge feat that Ford's engineers pulled off. From a company still producing the Anglia, they pulled together one of the greatest supercars of the century, and pulled off one of the motoring world's most fabled giant-killing acts. The GT40 deserves its place as the greatest surprise supercar ever.

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